It’s been four days since my life crashed around me, literally. “How the fuck is this still going on?” I say, grabbing my glass of water and throwing it against the wall. “It’s been four fucking days.” This time, the headlines are saying that her paper fired her for breach of contract.
The table in the dining room is filled with Ryan, Cassie, Joseph, my new security detail, Edward, my agent, and Larry, my lawyer. The six of us are going over different strategies to get this over once and for all because I’m done just staying quiet.
“Nothing is going to happen if you tear this whole house down.” Cassie looks up from her notes. “All it does is give me more work.”
“You just need to,” Ryan starts, and I glare at him, “let it blow over.”
I put my hands on the table. “I’m fucking done letting shit blow over. Every day is another fucking story.”
“And every day, I’m filing a new suit,” Larry says. “Sometimes twice a day.” He takes off his glasses and looks at me. “These people are vultures. You take out one and five more pop up.” He looks around the table we’ve been sitting at for the past three hours. “The more you go after them, the more they come back, this time tenfold. I hate to say it, but Ryan is right.”
“There has to be something I can do to get them to stop running all these stories.” I sit down defeated in the dining room chair. “Anything.” I look around the table at everyone, seeing if they have any suggestions.
“You have a sex tape?” Edward asks. Everyone groans, but he holds up his hand. “What? It would get her off the covers of every rag in this town.”
“Yeah, and get her onto every paid porn movie site instead,” Larry reminds everyone.
“Maybe,” Ryan says, “maybe she’s loving this.” I whip my head toward him. “Maybe she’s staying silent because she’s working on a book deal. A tell all.”
“No way,” I say, shaking my head. “There is no way she would do that.”
“How do you know?” Edward asks, and Ryan and Larry lean back in their chair, waiting for me to say something.
“I know,” I whisper. “I just know.” I hear a chair go back and see Joseph getting up from the table.
“I’m going to do a turn of the premises and make sure everything is okay.” He turns and walks out the door. Having him around has gotten on my nerves because I just want to be by myself. No, I want to be with Jessica alone, just the two of us. It’s been four days since I’ve slept properly, and four days since I last saw her, if you don’t count the number of times I’ve looked at our pictures.
“You have to be ready,” Larry says, “just in case she is selling a tell all.” I just shake my head. “I’m going to ask around just in case.”
“You’re wasting your time.” I sit back in my chair, looking at him.
“He’s right,” Ryan finally says, shaking his head. “She would never do that.”
“Oh, please,” Cassie mumbles under her breath, and all eyes go to her. She looks up now, and her hand flies up. “What?” Her voice goes a bit louder know, and I just stare at her. “She was obviously in love with him.” No one says anything at the table; not one person takes their eyes off her, her hands moving while she talks. “It was so obvious.” She rolls her eyes. “She was all over him all the time, and you saw it in her eyes in the picture.”
I glare at her. “What picture is that because in the picture that was leaked to the press, she had her eyes closed?” My heart starts to pound. “What fucking picture, Cassie?” I yell, and everyone around the table sits up. Ryan puts his hands on the table next to me, and I know it’s to save me if I jump over this table.
“The fucking picture of you two on the boat somewhere,” she finally says, and it’s at that moment I know that the person closest to me is the one responsible for all this, and she knows there is no turning back from this. “Don’t look at me like that!” she yells. “Who do you think would have been left to clean up the fucking mess you made after she fucked you over?” She stands up now. “Me.” She points at herself. “Me like always.”
“You leaked the picture,” I hiss. “You leaked the picture,” I say again, letting it sink in.
“I did,” she says, sitting down. “Someone had to step in and do something; you were being irrational.”
“Cassie,” Ryan says quietly, and she snaps her head at him.
“You weren’t there,” she says. “He was.”
I stand now, my chair going flying. Ryan stands up also and so does Edward, coming over to me and whispering in my ear, “Calm down.”
“Get the fuck out of my house!” I roar. “Get the fuck out of my house before I fucking toss you out!”
“You can’t be serious,” she says, looking at me. Her face is finally going white when she realizes I’m not playing. “You are going to choose her over me? After everything that I’ve done for you. Cleaning up all your shit, burying stories, making sure your whores went away quietly?” she yells. “I did that. Me, not you. Me,” she emphasizes, pointing at herself. “And now you’re going to stand there and pick that self-righteous bitch over me?”
“You did what I paid you to do because that was your job, and if I remember correctly, you were very well paid to do all those things,” I hiss, “and to answer your other question, I pick her. I choose her every second of every fucking day.” I lean forward, Edward putting his hand on my chest. “Now get the fuck out of my house.”
“If I leave, I won’t come back,” she says, putting her papers together.
“You don’t touch anything in my house,” I say, and her hands stop when she grabs her purse. “Leave the phone,” I say, and she snaps her head back when Ryan walks to her and holds out his hand for her phone.
“That’s my phone!” she shrieks.
“No,” I yell, “it’s mine! I pay for it, so it’s fucking mine.” I have to get my anger in check because if she were a guy, I wouldn’t stop beating him until he stopped breathing.
She reaches in her purse and takes out the phone, handing it to Ryan. “Cassie.” He shakes his head, pressing something on the phone. “You were taping this meeting?”
I lunge now, and it takes Edward and Larry to hold me back, and Ryan puts himself in front of Cassie. “Get the fuck out of my house!” I roar while they hold me back.
She walks past them, and I turn around, “Oh, and, Cassie, I suggest you read the contract you signed when I hired you. You mention another word about anything, and I’ll bury you so far down you won’t see the light for the rest of your life. Your life trotting across the globe with the newest and hottest star will be over before it can even begin.”
She stops and turns around. “She’s gone,” she says softly and quietly. “Her apartment was emptied yesterday.”
“More lies,” I hiss. “The paparazzi have staked out her apartment, and if she showed up, it would be in the papers.”